PAUL MARUYAMA AND HIS DECISION TO MOVE TO ST. LOUIS AFTER THE WAR

BURROWS: The next set of questions have to do with resettlement and coming to St. Louis and that kind of thing. Do you want to start on that or do you want to do it at a different time?

MARUYAMA: Why I picked St. Louis?

BURROWS: Yes.

MARUYAMA: I tell you know.

BURROWS: Ok.

MARUYAMA: End of the war, American government asked us, you people in the camp, you ah must get out from the camp. The war is over.

BURROWS: Do you remember the date?

MARUYAMA: Well... that's ah the end of the August.

BURROWS: Ok, 194...

MARUYAMA: 1945. And ah... director of the camp announce too. You people have a chance to get out. So... nobody wants to get out. They scared to get out.

BURROWS: Everybody?

MARUYAMA: Oh... I think about 80% the people they get out from the camp. Naturally, we are enemy aliens, you know. I don't know what's waiting for us outside the camp.
People, scared to get out. So... director asked me, "Paul, you are one of leader of ah this
camp. Why don't you get out? You leave ah wife and son here, you get out, look around
ah Midwest and East, we pay you all your expenses." That time, they bought for me
pullman car, you know (laugh). No airplane. No. (laugh) So, I get out from the camp,
Reno, change to the train to the Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis. And
I had a letter from director, you know. I have to meet the mayor or Washington U's ah...
counselor, or church leader or president of chamber of commerce, all those people, each
city. Asked them, I'm a enemy alien, but I got thousands ah people in the camp. Will you
accept Japanese, your school, or your community or your church? I asked all those
questions. Ah... each city. Then of course ah... mayor or school of each city said yes.

BURROWS: Everyone said yes?

MARUYAMA: Everyone said yes.

BURROWS: In every city?

MARUYAMA: In every city. But ah... I have the best impression from St. Louis.

BURROWS: Why? What kind of...

MARUYAMA: I don't know. I don't know. They said ah.. surely, send. We accept
ah...Japanese student Washington University. Thank you. And we went to the church
leader, and find for those old Isseis people, for work here, Ok. And ah… so I retumed
two weeks ah tour. And I write the newspaper, each mess hall, every night I have to tell,
that, well, you don't have to worry, they accept for you especially young people, you
know school, or old people, they could find work there. Kitchen worker or barber shop,
barber you know, could do that. And ah... so, each mess hall every night I have to tell that
the people you know. New York, or Detroit, and ah...ah... I think I go St. Louis. Some
people ask me, I go with you. A few families you know, followed me, settled down here.

BURROWS: How many people came with you to St. Louis?

MARUYAMA: Four people. So, they are good.

BURROWS: How many people all together came to St. Louis from the camps? Do you remember?

MARUYAMA: Oh, I think about ah...300. That's ah... not only Tule Lake, most eh... people from Arkansas. Arkansas, we had two camps, Rowher, and Jerome. Because closest here. Those people, closest big city is St Louis. So they settle down here. Some from Utah, Wyoming.

BURROWS: And how many people directly out of Tule?

MARUYAMA: Four families.

BURROWS: Can you tell me the names of those families?

MARUYAMA: They died already.

BURROWS: But it's important for the historical record to know who came.

MARUYAMA: Yamamoto, Fred Yamamoto.

BURROWS: And who else?

MARUYAMA: (176)... Hasegawa... Akita, I think that's all.

BURROWS: You think that's all.

MARUYAMA: Yes, Abe.

BURROWS: When you came to St. Louis to visit the mayor and the president of the university, did you visit at that time with any of the Japanese people living here in town.

MARUYAMA: Oh, yes. Ah.... I think 11 families... I believe 11 families, they were living here in St. Louis, before the war. And ah... when I came here, already some people from Arkansas or Utah or Wyoming's come.

BURROWS: Did people have any trouble finding housing?

MARUYAMA: N... No I don't think so. I didn't hear anything, difficult to find housing.

BURROWS: Did people live in many different places or did they...?

MARUYAMA: All different place.

BURROWS: All different places.

Paul Maruyama Family Home (Japan?)